re: Deer Processing Percentages?

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but seem to know a secret in how to keep it juicy. I wish those who know would help us beginners.

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I don’t mix anything with mine unless I’m making sausage. Ground meat is always 100 deer.

What are you cooking that it’s drying out?

I personally like my ground meat to be a touch lean, (which is why I go 75/25 deer meat to chuck roast, not fat). We use WAY more loose ground meat for things like spaghetti or tacos .

When I make burgers I’ll mix in equal parts 80/20 ground beef with the ground deer, burgers aren’t dry but also don’t shrink into hockey pucks. I think the biggest mistake people make is over mixing and then adding eggs and breadcrumbs trying to make a burger into meat loaf

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make a burger into meat loaf

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I used my breakfast sausage (uncased) 50/50 venison to pork to make the best meatballs you've ever had.

I did 2 lbs. of sausage, lots of bread crumbs, lots of Italian seasoning, about 2 eggs and 2 additional egg yolks.

Lightly molded into racketball sized meatballs and browned until i could turn them on all sides....then I added to already warm Monjuni's Sauce (my favorite)


Chefs Kiss


Made some mighty fine meatball subs with toasted bread, mayo and melted provolone!

The meatballs were as tender as an Italian restaurant's

I use a smoker I built . It will hold about 75-80 pounds of sausage at one time . It’s double walled steel (insulated) approx 30”w x 30”d x 7ft tall.

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I don’t mix anything with mine unless I’m making sausage. Ground meat is always 100 deer.

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same...last place used 10% beef mixed in with my ground meat.

For sausage I'm at least 60-70 deer/duck/or goose, etc.... If I'm making game sausage, I want it to resemble that game......

Less yield of meat out of your kill, but it's usually much cleaner and leaner.

For smoked sausage I use a recipe Martini posted a few years back. one pork butt equal in weight to deer meat, one beef chuck roast about half the size of pork butt. So, in weight 10-10-5 roughly.

Maybe he'll read this and update it.